TYRE ME OUT

Adieu! Me and Grace are off on a European Odyssey so that mean unfortunately you will be left stranded for two weeks with out any new audio or visual delights. Deepest Apologies.

Anyway, Grace and I were at a party the other night, whilst chatting we got on to the subject of KaitO, a little-known British band who split up in 2006, however we were fortunate to see them play in Brighton, with Erase Errata supporting Le Tigre, probably in...2004? Not sure. Anyway, they also supported Liars in 2006 and Plan B called them "Britain's most exciting guitar band."

KaitO - Try Me Out

(That's what I used to look like when I went on holiday)

MISSING ALL THE FUN

I went to see Mamma Mia! on Friday - it was WICKED. Try as I might, I find it very difficult to be cynical (I enjoyed the Sex and the City film as well). There's something about dance routines that always sucks me in. It also reminded me of my love for ABBA, so here is a song that wasn't actually in the film but needs to be heard:

ABBA - You Owe Me One

I'M NOT THE SUN

Andre 3000 and Kelis should do more stuff together.

Everyone was quite keen on 'Millionaire' a few years ago but I actually think 'Dracula's Wedding' is better, possibly because of the lyrics. Gotta love dem puns.




Kelis ft. Andre 3000 - Millionaire
Andre 3000 ft. Kelis - Dracula's Wedding

KIM AND KIM, KIM AND KIM

How many band references can you recognise in Mary Lou Lord's song 'His Indie World'??



Mary Lou Lord - His Indie World

Obviously, she sucks.

Another song that references Huggy Bear (there's one if you didn't get it) is this one by Free Kitten. Free Kitten should be an amazing supergroup. Fronted by Kim Gordon, they consists of members from Pussy Galore, Pavement and Boredoms. However, they only really have a few good songs, it doesn't matter though because the good songs are really good.

Free Kitten - Greener Pastures

WOULD RATHER BE WITH CATS

I love advert music. Obviously there are the quite uninspired adverts using songs that were basically made for use on TV soundtracks, and there are the ones which use your favourite song over and over and over until even of the mention of the advert or the song sends you into a blind rage.

But in general, I think adverts can sometimes be a good way to discover new songs you probably would have looked over elsewhere. It's something about putting the music to some images. Like that ad with all the colourful bouncing balls and Jose Gonzales' cover of 'Heartbeats' playing alongside - that was great. I don't watch that much TV either so I don't tend to get that sick of adverts.

Anyway, this song I first heard on an advert last year and I thought the visuals (screenshot above) really fit it:
Minotaur Shock - Muesli

A really stupid band name but a very nice song. The ad that this one accompanied was again for a phone and involved a bicycle riding around an empty parking lot at night. Which I thought was sweet. Didn't make me want to change phone networks though so they've failed on that one.
The Funky Lowlives - Time To Let You Go

I had heard this song before the advert, but watching a dog sing it made it even better:
Spencer Davis Group - I'm A Man

ROUNDABOUT AND ROUNDABOUT

This is just a drawing I did for a zine and then decided it was not good enough for said zine so I have pawned it off to Lost & Found. Lucky you.

Today I have been enjoying the musical delights of Talbot Tagora, a lovely band despite being named after a car. Here is their cover of the Elastica CLASSIC 'Connection'. Oh this song brings back memories, Talbot Tagora aren't the only ones to have covered this number, guess who else did a cover? Only my fellow blogger Grace Helmer and her short-lived band 'myself'! Those were the days...

Talbot Tagora - Connection

Of course, we all now how this song rips off Wire's 'Three Girl Rhumba', but there's no need to get petty.

FEELING SO SORE I TOOK ME OUT DANCING

Two days before my 18th birthday I went to go and see My Bloody Valentine at the Roundhouse in London. I went by myself, which is something I have never done before. At the door you had to show your ticket and in exchange you got give a set of earplugs. Obviously at the beginning I thought "I will not need earplugs, I'm no wimp, I'm hardcore " but the final number was followed by 20 minutes of pure noise, which was INCREDIBLE but so very very loud (though any quieter wouldn't have been so great), so I sheepishly plugged up my ears to avoid any impending brain damage.

The second number they played was probably my favourite My Bloody Valentine song - When You Sleep, and I do confess that I nearly shed a tear. The one thing that slightly irked me, however, was this absolutely dickhead standing in front of me - he had obviously come with a group of his friends and he was papping away like nobody's business, anyway, being the tall lass that I am I happened to glance over whilst he was writing a text, this text described how he was hating the gig, thought the band were "apalling" and didn't see why anybody liked this kind of music, he also wrote "this is for people who wear trainers - so they can do some shoegazing!" Really, what a cunt.
I digress, overall it was amazing and I am so glad I went.

So! New Abe Vigoda album out on July 8th entitled Skeleton. It's awesome. Very tropical and fun, I highly recommend it. Here is the first track:
Abe Vigoda - Dead City/Waste Wilderness
Another band I've been enjoying recently are Mutators. It's pretty noisy.By this I do not mean that the noise is pretty.
Mutators - Instinct

SHE'S UP TO SOMETHING

Yesterday I went up to see some stuff by Jake and Dinos Chapman at the White Cube Gallery. Titled 'If Hitler Had Been a Hippy How Happy Would He Be', there were defaced paintings, 'vandalized' paintings by Hitler (like the one above) and a recreation of their previous work 'Hell' -which had burnt down in a basement fire - now named 'Fucking Hell'. Lovely. 'Fucking Hell' comprised of nine cases filled with miniature scenes and figures of war and destruction types of things. Lots of heads on poles, nazis and random limbs everywhere. It was the kind of piece that photos don't really do justice to and it was great to walk around each one and look up close at the amount of detail - the expressions on each little face especially.

The White Cube seems to never have any words to go along with the works they show so you end up trying to interpret it for yourself rather than relying on the gallery's description. However, I had no bloody idea about the Hitler pictures, which are apparently concerned with the insight you may be able to get from an artist's work, and how little you could have gotten from Hitler's really crap landscapes.

I also went to see the BP Portrait Award at the National Gallery, which as usual was full of hyper-real photographic style portraits. It makes you think what the point is really, when they could have just taken a photograph and gotten the exact same result. A lot of it seems just to exist to show off technical skill. Maybe I am just jealous that I can't paint like that.

^Boots No. 7 (2), by Harriet White.

Anyway, here is a song. I especially like when the phone rings and someone goes 'Hello?'
Out Hud - It's For You